Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes, you say. That’s poetry? Yup, I say and it’s usually the first poems any of us learn. But like fairy tales, nursery rhymes can have interesting origins, but seem to lack the violent imagery common to fairy tales.

Take this for example:

“Little Bo Peep Story”
Little Bo peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
Little Bo peep fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were all still fleeting.
Then up she took her little crook
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they left their tails behind them.
It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side
All hung on a tree to dry.
She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she could,
As a shepherdess should,
To tack again each to its lambkin.
From: Nursery Rhymes www.rhymes.org.uk/little_bo_peep.htm

Check out www.rhymes.org.uk for more nursery rhymes.

Also RhymeZone www.rhymezone.com is a very cool rhyming site

www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclassdetail.aspx?LessonPlanID=15 has hints for rewriting Mary Had A Little Lamb and writing nursery rhymes in general.

www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclassdetail.aspx?LessonPlanID=39 And if you’re still wondering, what is a poem, check out this link.